Bruins grind down Senators in OT

BOSTON 
The Bruins weren't making excuses. They also weren't discounting the primary one being offered up.

Returning home after being on the road for five games and nearly two weeks, the B's were warned about the possibility of a difficult re-entry as they met the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night at TD Garden.

And that was the case as the Bruins were a stride slower than the Senators for the vast majority of the game.

But they never stopped battling and eventually emerged with a 2-1 overtime victory that moved them to within a point of first-place Montreal in the Northeast Division with three games in hand on the Habs.

“It was a grind, there's no doubt about that,” coach Claude Julien said. “We talked about that this morning. Traveling and the games that you play and come back from all that, and it seems it's always a challenge.

“We didn't have our 'A' game tonight, and a lot of that is because we didn't skate as well as we're used to skating. We were second on the puck on a lot of occasions, so it made it a little bit tougher for us to come up with the win.

“But, again, you have to give your guys credit for battling through and finding ways (to win).”

Patrice Bergeron got the winner with 1:12 left in overtime after getting a helping hand from friend and foe alike. Stationed in the slot, he redirected Dennis Seidenberg's shot from the point and then saw goalie Robin Lehner push the puck across the line with his glove.

“I don't think we saw a pretty goal of the three tonight, so I guess it was fitting,” Julien said.

Tuukka Rask was, once again, pretty darn good. He made 30 saves, including a couple of beauties in overtime with the Senators on the power play.

Rask has started the past five games, allowing seven goals and winning them all. He is not lacking for confidence right now.

“I think when you know you're capable of doing the job and you have the abilities to be our No. 1, you want to thrive on your chance,” Bergeron said. “He's doing that right now. He grabbed it, and he's running with it.”

The Senators' goal came on the power play, Jim O'Brien scoring out of a scrum at 14:38 of the second after Rask held his ground to deny Kaspars Daugavins on a clean breakaway. That tied the score and snapped the B's streak of 27 successful penalty kills.

Nathan Horton opened the scoring, finishing off a give-and-go with Dougie Hamilton by pushing a check-swing shot from out front past Lerner at 5:48 of the second.

“The first one was kind of a misread,” said Lehner, who made 44 saves in his first start of the season. “It was coming back slow. I thought my player in front was going to take it, so reflex for me is to go up. It went through, and I couldn't recover.”

Milan Lucic also assisted on Horton's seventh of the season, twice keeping the puck in Ottawa's end with some alert play at the blue line. Lucic has three points in his last three games.

The Bruins went 0 for 3 on the power play and are now 0 for 26 at home this season.